Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Master Program: GenAI, RAG, Agents & Enterprise AI – Live Training
1. What is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
- What is an FDE? | The intersection of engineering, consulting, and AI
- FDE vs SWE | FDEs build *for* clients, SWEs build products
- The FDE Mindset | Speed > Perfection · Empathy > Assumptions
- FDE Skillset | AI + Data + Cloud + SE = the four pillars
- Delivery Method | => Concepts, MCQs and Labs
2. AI & GenAI Foundations
- What is Generative AI? | Models that *generate* content, not just classify
- AI → ML → DL → GenAI | The evolution and where we are now
- Transformer Architecture | Attention is all you need — simplifi ed mental model
- Tokens & Tokenization | How LLMs see text; why it matters for cost & limits
- Pre-training vs Fine-tuning vs RAG | Three ways to customize AI; when to use each
- Open vs Closed Models | Tradeoff s: control vs convenience
- AI Application Lifecycle | Idea → Prototype → Eval → Production → Monitor
3. LLM Fundamentals for FDEs
- How LLMs Work | Predict the next token — that’s it (but the implications are enormous)
- Context Window & Memory | The LLM’s “RAM” — what fi ts, what gets cut
- Hallucination | Why LLMs make things up; mitigation strategies
- Popular LLMs | Claude vs GPT-4o vs Gemini vs LLaMA — strengths & trade-off s
- Model Selection for FDEs | Match model to task: cost, speed, quality triangle
- API vs Self-Hosted | SaaS API for most; self-hosted for compliance/cost at scale
- Cost & Latency | Token pricing, batching, caching strategies
4. Prompt Engineering for Enterprise FDEs
- Prompt Engineering Overview | The #1 FDE superpower — 80% of AI quality comes from prompts
- Zero-Shot / Few-Shot / CoT & Prompt Chaining | Know when to give examples, when to reason step-by-step
- System Prompts & Role Design | Persona + Instructions + Constraints = reliable output
- Prompt Chaining | Break complex tasks into sequential prompt steps
- Structured Output (JSON Mode) | Force the LLM to return parseable data
- Temperature & Controls | Creativity vs precision; when to dial each
- Prompt Evaluation | A/B test prompts; measure output quality rigorously
- Enterprise Patterns | Classifi cation, extraction, summarization, transformation
5. AI Engineering Core
- Embeddings and Vector Databases
- Chunking Strategies
- Indexing Methods
- Vector Databases
- Vector DB Performance Optimization
- What is RAG? Ground LLM responses in *your* data — eliminate hallucination
- RAG vs Fine-Tuning, RAG for knowledge; fi ne-tuning for style/format
- Data Ingestion, PDFs, databases, APIs, web pages → chunks → vectors
- Retrieval Strategies ,Top-K, MMR (diversity), re-ranking
- Metadata Filtering, Filter by date, category, author before vector search
- Advanced RAG, Self-query, HyDE, Corrective RAG, RAPTOR
- RAG Evaluation, Faithfulness, Answer Relevance, Context Recall (RAGAS)
6. AI Agents & Agent Orchestration
- What is an Agent? | LLM + Tools + Memory + Decision Loop |
- Tool Calling | Defi ne tools as JSON schema; LLM decides when/how to call them |
- ReAct Pattern | Reason → Act → Observe → Repeat |
- Agentic Design Patterns | Planning, Refl ection, Memory, Multi-step reasoning |
- Agent Memory | Short-term (in-context), Long-term (DB), Episodic (past runs) |
- Agent Observability | Trace every step; log tool calls; measure token usage |
- Lab: Research Agent
- “`python
- # Build an agent that:
- # 1. Accepts a research question
- # 2. Searches the web (tool: web_search)
- # 3. Reads relevant pages (tool: read_url)
- # 4. Synthesizes fi ndings into a structured report
- # 5. Saves output to a fi le (tool: write_fi le)
7. Multi-Agent Systems & AI Frameworks
- Multi-Agent Architecture | Why one agent isn’t enough for complex enterprise tasks
- Supervisor-Worker | Coordinator delegates; specialists execute
- Peer Agents | Agents communicate directly; no central coordinator
- LangChain | Building blocks: chains, memory, tools, retrievers
- LangGraph | State machines for complex, stateful agent workfl ows
- Agent State Sharing | Shared memory and message passing between agents
8. MCP, AI Workfl ows & Automation
- What is MCP? | Standard protocol for LLMs to call external tools safely
- MCP vs API | MCP is context-aware and AI-native; REST APIs are generic
- MCP Components | Host (Claude Desktop), Client (app), Server (tool wrapper)
- Building an MCP Server | Expose any tool (DB, API, fi le system) via MCP
- AI Workfl ow Design | Directed graphs of AI steps + human checkpoints
- Automation Patterns | Trigger-based, event-driven, scheduled AI workfl ows
9. AI-Assisted Software Engineering
- AI-First SDLC | Prompt → Generate → Review → Refi ne → Ship (not: write → debug → repeat)
- Claude Code | Agentic CLI that reads/writes fi les, runs commands, fi xes bugs
- Cursor | AI-native IDE — inline generation, codebase-aware completions
- GitHub Copilot | Autocomplete + chat — best for line-by-line acceleration
- Rapid Prototyping | 0 → working demo in 2 hours using AI tools
- AI Code Review | Use AI to review your own PRs before submitting
- AI Debugging | “Here’s the error + stack trace — what’s wrong?”
- Lab: Build a Full Feature in 2 Hours Using AI Tools**
-
- Challenge: Build a REST API with the following in under 2 hours using Claude Code:
- POST /analyze — accepts text, returns sentiment + entities + summary
- GET /history — returns last 20 analyses from SQLite
- GET /health — health check endpoint
- Full test suite (pytest)
- Docker containerization
- Rules: 3
- You may not manually write more than 20 lines of code
- All code must be generated or heavily assisted by AI
- You must review and understand every line before shipping
10. Data Engineering for FDEs
- DE Fundamentals | Data is the fuel for AI — FDEs must be able to wrangle it
- ETL vs ELT | Modern: load fi rst, transform in the warehouse (ELT wins)
- Data Lake vs Lakehouse | Lakehouse = Delta Lake on object storage — best of both
- Medallion Architecture | Bronze (raw) → Silver (cleaned) → Gold (business-ready)
- Batch vs Streaming | Batch for history; streaming for real-time AI
- Data Pipelines | Ingestion → transformation → loading → validation
- Data Quality | Null checks, schema validation, freshness monitoring
- Platform Landscape | Databricks, Snowfl ake, dbt, Airfl ow, Kafka — when to use each
- AI + Data Integration | How AI pipelines consume data from your data platform
- Lab: End-to-End Data Pipeline with AI Transformation**
- Scenario: Client has raw customer support tickets in S3 (CSVs).
- Goal: Build a pipeline that:
- Ingests raw CSVs to Bronze Delta table
- Cleans and deduplicates → Silver table
- Uses Claude to classify each ticket (category + priority) → Gold table
- Exposes Gold table via SQL for BI dashboard
- Stack: Python + pandas + delta-spark (local) + Claude API
11. Cloud Architecture for FDEs
- Cloud-Native Principles | Design for failure; scale horizontally; automate everything
- AWS Well-Architected | 5 pillars every FDE should know before touching client cloud
- AI Platform Deployment | Where AI apps live: EC2, Lambda, ECS, Bedrock, SageMaker
- Microservices & APIs | Decompose AI apps into independently deployable services
- Docker for AI | Container your AI app → consistent, portable, deployable
- Serverless for AI | Lambda for lightweight inference; cost-eff ective for event-driven AI
- Security Fundamentals | IAM least-privilege; VPC isolation; secrets in AWS Secrets Manager
- CI/CD for FDEs | GitHub Actions → test → build → deploy on every merge
12. Enterprise AI + FDE Delivery
- Understanding the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) delivery model
- Converting business problems into AI-driven technical solutions
- Requirements gathering and stakeholder discovery techniques
- Conducting effective client workshops and requirement analysis sessions
- Problem Translation Framework for Enterprise AI projects
- Designing AI solutions based on business objectives
- Building rapid AI prototypes and proof-of-concepts (POCs)
- Technical storytelling and solution presentation techniques
- Enterprise AI project planning and delivery best practices
- Communicating AI solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Creating technical briefs, solution proposals, and implementation roadmaps
- Portfolio building, case studies, GitHub projects, and LinkedIn branding
- Real-world client engagement and consulting scenarios
- End-to-end Enterprise AI solution delivery framework
13. Mini Project
Course Features
- Lectures 105
- Quiz 0
- Duration 40 hours
- Skill level All levels
- Language English
- Students 0
- Assessments Yes
- 13 Sections
- 105 Lessons
- 40 Hours
- What is a Forward Deployed Engineer?5
- 1.1What is an FDE? | The intersection of engineering, consulting, and AI
- 1.2FDE vs SWE | FDEs build *for* clients, SWEs build products
- 1.3The FDE Mindset | Speed > Perfection · Empathy > Assumptions
- 1.4FDE Skillset | AI + Data + Cloud + SE = the four pillars
- 1.5Delivery Method | => Concepts, MCQs and Labs
- AI & GenAI Foundations7
- 2.1What is Generative AI? | Models that *generate* content, not just classify
- 2.2AI → ML → DL → GenAI | The evolution and where we are now
- 2.3Transformer Architecture | Attention is all you need — simplifi ed mental model
- 2.4Tokens & Tokenization | How LLMs see text; why it matters for cost & limits
- 2.5Pre-training vs Fine-tuning vs RAG | Three ways to customize AI; when to use each
- 2.6Open vs Closed Models | Tradeoff s: control vs convenience
- 2.7AI Application Lifecycle | Idea → Prototype → Eval → Production → Monitor
- LLM Fundamentals for FDEs7
- 3.1How LLMs Work | Predict the next token — that’s it (but the implications are enormous)
- 3.2Context Window & Memory | The LLM’s “RAM” — what fi ts, what gets cut
- 3.3Hallucination | Why LLMs make things up; mitigation strategies
- 3.4Popular LLMs | Claude vs GPT-4o vs Gemini vs LLaMA — strengths & trade-off s
- 3.5Model Selection for FDEs | Match model to task: cost, speed, quality triangle
- 3.6API vs Self-Hosted | SaaS API for most; self-hosted for compliance/cost at scale
- 3.7Cost & Latency | Token pricing, batching, caching strategies
- Prompt Engineering for Enterprise FDEs8
- 4.1Prompt Engineering Overview | The #1 FDE superpower — 80% of AI quality comes from prompts
- 4.2Zero-Shot / Few-Shot / CoT & Prompt Chaining | Know when to give examples, when to reason step-by-step
- 4.3System Prompts & Role Design | Persona + Instructions + Constraints = reliable output
- 4.4Prompt Chaining | Break complex tasks into sequential prompt steps
- 4.5Structured Output (JSON Mode) | Force the LLM to return parseable data
- 4.6Temperature & Controls | Creativity vs precision; when to dial each
- 4.7Prompt Evaluation | A/B test prompts; measure output quality rigorously
- 4.8Enterprise Patterns | Classifi cation, extraction, summarization, transformation
- AI Engineering Core12
- 5.1Embeddings and Vector Databases
- 5.2Chunking Strategies
- 5.3Indexing Methods
- 5.4Vector Databases
- 5.5Vector DB Performance Optimization
- 5.6What is RAG? Ground LLM responses in *your* data — eliminate hallucination
- 5.7RAG vs Fine-Tuning, RAG for knowledge; fi ne-tuning for style/format
- 5.8Data Ingestion, PDFs, databases, APIs, web pages → chunks → vectors
- 5.9Retrieval Strategies ,Top-K, MMR (diversity), re-ranking
- 5.10Metadata Filtering, Filter by date, category, author before vector search
- 5.11Advanced RAG, Self-query, HyDE, Corrective RAG, RAPTOR
- 5.12RAG Evaluation, Faithfulness, Answer Relevance, Context Recall (RAGAS)
- AI Agents & Agent Orchestration14
- 6.1What is an Agent? | LLM + Tools + Memory + Decision Loop |
- 6.2Tool Calling | Defi ne tools as JSON schema; LLM decides when/how to call them |
- 6.3ReAct Pattern | Reason → Act → Observe → Repeat |
- 6.4Agentic Design Patterns | Planning, Refl ection, Memory, Multi-step reasoning |
- 6.5Agent Memory | Short-term (in-context), Long-term (DB), Episodic (past runs) |
- 6.6Agent Observability | Trace every step; log tool calls; measure token usage |
- 6.7Lab: Research Agent
- 6.8python
- 6.9# Build an agent that:
- 6.10# 1. Accepts a research question
- 6.11# 2. Searches the web (tool: web_search)
- 6.12# 3. Reads relevant pages (tool: read_url)
- 6.13# 4. Synthesizes fi ndings into a structured report
- 6.14# 5. Saves output to a fi le (tool: write_fi le)
- Multi-Agent Systems & AI Frameworks6
- 7.1Multi-Agent Architecture | Why one agent isn’t enough for complex enterprise tasks
- 7.2Supervisor-Worker | Coordinator delegates; specialists execute
- 7.3Peer Agents | Agents communicate directly; no central coordinator
- 7.4LangChain | Building blocks: chains, memory, tools, retrievers
- 7.5LangGraph | State machines for complex, stateful agent workfl ows
- 7.6Agent State Sharing | Shared memory and message passing between agents
- MCP, AI Workfl ows & Automation6
- 8.1What is MCP? | Standard protocol for LLMs to call external tools safely
- 8.2MCP vs API | MCP is context-aware and AI-native; REST APIs are generic
- 8.3MCP Components | Host (Claude Desktop), Client (app), Server (tool wrapper)
- 8.4Building an MCP Server | Expose any tool (DB, API, fi le system) via MCP
- 8.5AI Workfl ow Design | Directed graphs of AI steps + human checkpoints
- 8.6Automation Patterns | Trigger-based, event-driven, scheduled AI workfl ows
- AI-Assisted Software Engineering8
- 9.1AI-First SDLC | Prompt → Generate → Review → Refi ne → Ship (not: write → debug → repeat)
- 9.2Claude Code | Agentic CLI that reads/writes fi les, runs commands, fi xes bugs
- 9.3Cursor | AI-native IDE — inline generation, codebase-aware completions
- 9.4GitHub Copilot | Autocomplete + chat — best for line-by-line acceleration
- 9.5Rapid Prototyping | 0 → working demo in 2 hours using AI tools
- 9.6AI Code Review | Use AI to review your own PRs before submitting
- 9.7AI Debugging | “Here’s the error + stack trace — what’s wrong?”
- 9.8Lab: Build a Full Feature in 2 Hours Using AI Tools**
- Data Engineering for FDEs10
- 10.1DE Fundamentals | Data is the fuel for AI — FDEs must be able to wrangle it
- 10.2ETL vs ELT | Modern: load fi rst, transform in the warehouse (ELT wins)
- 10.3Data Lake vs Lakehouse | Lakehouse = Delta Lake on object storage — best of both
- 10.4Medallion Architecture | Bronze (raw) → Silver (cleaned) → Gold (business-ready)
- 10.5Batch vs Streaming | Batch for history; streaming for real-time AI
- 10.6Data Pipelines | Ingestion → transformation → loading → validation
- 10.7Data Quality | Null checks, schema validation, freshness monitoring
- 10.8Platform Landscape | Databricks, Snowfl ake, dbt, Airfl ow, Kafka — when to use each
- 10.9AI + Data Integration | How AI pipelines consume data from your data platform
- 10.10Lab: End-to-End Data Pipeline with AI Transformation**
- Cloud Architecture for FDEs8
- 11.1Cloud-Native Principles | Design for failure; scale horizontally; automate everything
- 11.2AWS Well-Architected | 5 pillars every FDE should know before touching client cloud
- 11.3AI Platform Deployment | Where AI apps live: EC2, Lambda, ECS, Bedrock, SageMaker
- 11.4Microservices & APIs | Decompose AI apps into independently deployable services
- 11.5Docker for AI | Container your AI app → consistent, portable, deployable
- 11.6Serverless for AI | Lambda for lightweight inference; cost-eff ective for event-driven AI
- 11.7Security Fundamentals | IAM least-privilege; VPC isolation; secrets in AWS Secrets Manager
- 11.8CI/CD for FDEs | GitHub Actions → test → build → deploy on every merge
- Enterprise AI + FDE Delivery14
- 12.1Understanding the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) delivery model
- 12.2Converting business problems into AI-driven technical solutions
- 12.3Requirements gathering and stakeholder discovery techniques
- 12.4Conducting effective client workshops and requirement analysis sessions
- 12.5Problem Translation Framework for Enterprise AI projects
- 12.6Designing AI solutions based on business objectives
- 12.7Building rapid AI prototypes and proof-of-concepts (POCs)
- 12.8Technical storytelling and solution presentation techniques
- 12.9Enterprise AI project planning and delivery best practices
- 12.10Communicating AI solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
- 12.11Creating technical briefs, solution proposals, and implementation roadmaps
- 12.12Portfolio building, case studies, GitHub projects, and LinkedIn branding
- 12.13Real-world client engagement and consulting scenarios
- 12.14End-to-end Enterprise AI solution delivery framework
- Mini Project0



